William Blake Richmond - St Joan of Arc

Signed with initials; pencil and pastel on buff paper, 28⅛ × 22 ins, in the original Watts frame

This drawing is a rare example for Blake Richmond to depict an historical figure. He
was one of many artists of the period to choose St Joan as a subject. Rossetti, Millais, and Waterhouse all painted her and Blake Richmond also worked on an oil version, which now belongs in a private collection (see S. Reynolds, William Blake Richmond: An Artist’s Life, 1842–1921, plate xxx). The Public interest in St Joan was at its height in the early 20th Century, she was beatified in 1909 and canonised in 1920.